Linotype -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Arturius Wickware sputtered, but now High-Pockets had to go on.
"Sometimes a man comes along who happens to be negatively charged, and
he can't handle a piece of machinery at all. But now I--you see this
scar in the middle of my forehead--" he removed his faded hat, "I
was struck by lightning on a freight train out in Utah, and I think it
multiplied my 'personal' electricity potential a lot--maybe millions
of times--so machinery just _has_ to do what I want it to, because it
_wants_ to do it. You see?"
There was an odd silence; then the chairman spoke. "Old No. 7 started
acting up when they built the first uranium pile south of town here,
but it really went bad when it was hit by lightning that followed down
the ventilation pipe two months ago."
High-Pockets' blue eyes opened wide. "Maybe its negative field was
reversed by some stray rays from the pile, and then when the lightning
hit it, it intensified the field so that the machine is now strongly
positive. You know how it is," he said earnestly. "A body illuminated
by ultraviolet light becomes positively charged, and even a hot body
becomes positively charged by what they call thermionic emission. Well,
that's okay. A linotype is exactly like a woman. It has a soul--if you
know how to reach it."
Old Arturius snorted so loudly the electric relay on No. 7 made contact
and the heating switch came on with a clatter. "You can work on No. 7
tonight," he said acidly. "Let's see if _it's_ got a soul." He turned
on his heel and stamped back to his bench....
It never occurred to High-Pockets to doubt his success with No. 7. He
carefully hung his ten-year-old coat in an empty locker and made sure
the pint of bourbon was safely in the inside pocket of the coat. Then
he walked into the composing-room and over to No. 7, and stood for a
moment looking her over. He frowned. "It's almost as if she was laying
her ears back and getting ready to snarl at me," he said wonderingly.
"She'll snarl," said Arturius at his back. "She'll _bite_, before the
night's over."
High-Pockets tried to look amused. "I'll have her setting type by
herself before lunch time," he promised.
* * * * *
High-Pockets got the lowest chair in the composing-room, to bring his
arms down near the keyboard. His nose was still red and he weaved a
little in the chair, but he began to fold in his arms until his hands
were over the keyboard.
The first take went smoothly. High-Pockets could feel a clash of
wills, but he was slow and careful. He set two more takes, and nothing
happened, so he began to relax. His third take was a short piece of
telegraph copy for the second edition. He put it in the copy holder and
then decided to get a drink of water. He ran into some friends and they
spent five minutes around the fountain before the foreman came by.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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